Group Churches

A pen picture of Revd Desmond McCreery

Desmond is going to be our Holy Week speaker and I thought that it might be useful to provide some background on him in preparation for his visit.
Born of Christian parents in Ballygawley, Desmond in a booklet written by himself and his wife Frances describes his childhood as happy. He boarded at the Royal School Dungannon and it was during that time that he strayed from the teaching of his parents. He writes of this time as follows; Secretly I had thrown overboard the teaching of my parents. As far as I was concerned the Church was irrelevant. I only went because the school authorities made it compulsory! How many of us can identify with words similar to these!! But tragedy was to strike in the life of the young Desmond. In his sixth form, his mother took ill and died after a very short illness at the age of 46. At his mother’s funeral he reflected as his mother’s remains were being lowered into an open grave as follows; I knew if my body had been in that coffin I certainly would never have been in the heavenly home she was now enjoying. Not one who considered himself to be a spiritual scaremonger in his later work as an evangelist, this episode never the less caused him to reflect on the question “Where will you spend eternity?” Tired of the battle going on within himself following his mother’s sudden death, Desmond prayed the prayer of a sinner looking for God’s forgiveness by simply using the words of a well known hymn
Take my life and let it be
Consecrated Lord to thee.
Desmond’s life was transformed as he writes; The days and weeks and months passed and I felt elated, as the truth and wonder of what had happened began to dawn upon the young life.
At 18 years of age Desmond felt that God was calling him to the Ordained Ministry. He trained for three years at Oakhill College, London and was ordained in 1962. He subsequently served in Parishes in the North of Ireland and retired from full-time Ordained Ministry in 2003.
I hope that this gives you something of a flavour of the life of our Holy Week speaker and an appetite for coming along to hear what God is going to say to us through Desmond.

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Emergency cover

Geoff and family will be away on Easter break from Wednesday 11th April to 18th April inclusive. Any emergencies during this period should be referred to Revd George Browne on (00353 from NI) (R of I (0))719644415 (mobile 0863517700).

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New Parish Grouping

At a recent meeting of our Diocesan Council it was agreed that the grouping of Swanlinbar Group of Parishes and Kildallon Group of Parishes take place with immediate effect. This proposal now has to be presented to the Executive of the Representative Body in Dublin at their April meeting and assuming it is agreed at this level the new Parish Grouping will take place with effect of the date of that proposal being adopted.
One of the consequences of this new grouping is that Tomregan Parish and St Peter’s Parish will alternate services and you will notice from the worship rota that this will commence after Easter. This is not news to us, but I do recognise that it will be difficult for some of us to embrace this change readily. Please do move with us as we genuinely are seeking to move Forward! together throughout this process. As I have said since coming to this Group of Parishes I am totally committed to seeing our communities grow in confidence and faith. I remain convinced that under God, this development is a move in the right direction for all of us. Please do give me your support and lets keep on moving Forward! together.

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Ballyconnell Central National School

I am delighted to announce that the Dept of Education and Science have responded very favourably to a Board of Management application for a grant under the New School Scheme – we have been awarded €460, 000!!!! There are still a few legalities to be tidied up but suffice to say that this is wonderful news for the School, the Parish and the community. The time scale for works is still unclear as we are very much in the early stages of the process and still coming to terms with the news! But we would hope to be looking at Autumn of 2008 for completion if all goes to plan. Please do pray for the Board of Management as they now handle this significant change in a way which will build not only the School community but also God’s kingdom.

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Forward!

Cast your mind back to the Slieve Russell Hotel on Sunday 12th June 2005. A remarkable thing happened that day – Forward! was launched at an extraordinary service in a function room in a secular Hotel. Some were sceptical about such an idea in the lead up to the day, but few were afterwards, having experienced a truly wonderful service with around 1200 other Church of Ireland folk. You couldn’t repeat that service, but the Forward! steering group have organised a similar day for 3pm on Sunday 20th May, again in the Slieve Russell Hotel. Guests on the day will include TV personality Paul Clarke and Marion Gibson, sister of our last Primate Robin Eames and an expert in her own right in the field of Trauma counselling. Make a note of this day in your diary and make it an absolute priority to be there. There will be no other services in our Group of Parishes that day.

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Easter Vestries

It is almost that time of the year again when we have our Annual Easter Meeting of the General Vestry. This is an occasion when you can come along and have your say regarding the election of Wardens and Vestry Members. This annual meeting is not just for the current Select Vestry, but it is for those who have a genuine interest in the Church and specifically it’s financial affairs. The Select Vestry are constitutionally responsible for decision making in relation to three key areas; Fabric (buildings), Finance and Furnishings (building contents). This is an extremely important function within our Church and should not simply be left to someone else. Please do come along and support these public meetings and enjoy a bite of supper upon conclusion of the business!
The meetings are at 8pm in each of the locations:

Parish	Venue	Date
Tomregan Ballyconnell	Minor Hall	Tuesday 24th April
St Peter's Templeport	Templeport Community Centre	Wednesday 25th April
St Augustine's Swanlinbar	Minor Hall Kinawley	Thursday 26th April.
Please note the change of dates for the St Augustine's and St Peter's meetings

 

 

 

 

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Now have a smile at one aspect of education in America

According to a news report, a certain school in Washington DC was recently faced with a unique problem. A number of 12 year old girls were beginning to use lipstick and would put it on in the bathroom at school. That was fine, but after they put on their lipstick they would press their lips to the mirror leaving dozens of little lip prints.
Every night the maintenance man would remove them and the next day the Girls would put them back. Several memos were pasted about this, without effect.
Finally the Principal decided that something had to be done. She called all the girls to the bathroom and met them there with the maintenance man. She explained that all these lip prints were causing a major problem for the janitor who had to clean the mirrors every night.
To demonstrate how difficult it was to clean the mirrors, she asked the maintenance man to show the girls just how hard it was.
Under careful instructions, the man took out a long handled squeegee, solemnly dipped it in the nearest toilet bowl, and scrubbed the mirror. There was complete silence in the room. Since then, there have been no lip prints on the mirror. - There are teachers and then there are educators!

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